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Chapter 86
公開日:
2026-04-01 17:02:11
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Chasing His Divorced Wife Chapter 104
DAMIEN'S POVNew Year's Eve arrived cold and clear. The fourth time we'd done this. Terrace, wine, blankets, the city counting down below. It had the quality of something established, a ritual that had accumulated enough repetitions to feel inevitable, like it had always been what we did and always would be.I bought a bottle of wine in the afternoon that I'd been looking at since October in the shop two blocks from the gallery. The owner had mentioned it in passing, a small vineyard, limited production, the kind of thing that warranted an occasion.New Year's Eve warranted it.Elara was in the studio when I got home. I heard her moving around, the specific sound of her working through something, and I put the wine on the counter and went to the doorway.She was looking at the shelves.Not working. Just looking."Taking stock?" I said."End of year. It seems appropriate."I came and stood beside her.We looked at the shelves together.The lower one, full and settled. The upper one wit
Chasing His Divorced Wife Chapter 103
ELARA'S POVThe days between Christmas and New Year had a quality I'd come to love.The gallery closed until the second of January. Damien's work minimal, the Cross Industries machine running on its own momentum through the week. Nothing required from either of us beyond what we chose to give.We moved through the days slowly.Wednesday the farmers market was there, smaller still than the December one, just four stalls, but the bread woman was there and the cheese and we went anyway because it was what Wednesdays were.Damien bought coffee from the cart and handed me one before I asked.The bread woman looked at us with the recognition of two years."Usual?" she said to him."And the rosemary," he said.She put both in a bag and he paid and we walked on."She knows your order," I said."I've been coming for two years.""You didn't used to talk to vendors.""You say that every time.""It keeps being true."He took my hand and we moved through the four stalls and bought what was worth b
Chasing His Divorced Wife Chapter 102
**DAMIEN'S POVWe drove back to Seattle on the twenty-sixth.Same road, same direction, the city coming back into view as we cleared the last stretch of highway. The return drive was different from the arrival drive in the way that returns always were, fuller somehow, carrying what the days had been.Elara was quiet.Not unhappy, quiet. The specific quiet she had when she was integrating something, turning it over and placing it correctly.At some point she said, "My father marked twelve months of chess lessons.""Yes.""He's planning to teach you something specific every month.""That's what the slips of paper are.""He's never done that with anyone." She looked at the window. "He was a teacher for forty years. He had hundreds of students. He's never made a private curriculum for anyone.""I'm not a student.""No. You're his son-in-law." She paused. "That's the point."I held the road for a moment."When I was in the first marriage," I said slowly, "I had no understanding of what fam
Chasing His Divorced Wife Chapter 101
ELARA'S POVChristmas morning I woke to the smell of my mother's kitchen already working.Six-thirty. Earlier than she needed to start. She started early because she loved it, because the long morning of cooking was its own kind of Christmas for her, the hours of it as much the gift as the meal.Damien was asleep.I lay still and listened to the house. My mother moving in the kitchen, soft and unhurried. The particular creak of the third stair that had been there since I was seven. Outside the Tacoma morning, quiet in the specific way of Christmas, the world briefly paused.I looked at him.On his back, one arm across his stomach, breathing even. He'd been up later than me, he and my father finishing the chess game and then sitting in the living room for twenty minutes afterward that I hadn't been part of and hadn't needed to be.I'd heard them from the hallway. My father's voice and then Damien's and then a long pause and then both of them. Not what they were saying. Just the rhythm
Chasing His Divorced Wife Chapter 100
DAMIEN'S POVOn Christmas Eve we drove to Tacoma in the late afternoon and the highway gave way to the smaller roads and Elara had a playlist that was neither Christmas music nor Christmas music, somewhere in between, the kind of thing that worked for December driving without demanding anything from the listener.She had her feet on the dashboard.November had been too cold for it. December apparently wasn't.I didn't say anything. Just drove and let her have the dashboard and the playlist and the fading December light through the passenger window.At some point she turned her head and looked at me."What?" I said."Nothing. Thinking.""About what?""Last Christmas Eve." She turned back to the window. "We drove this same road. You'd just come back from New York and the Vermont conversation with Richard and Julian had just happened. Everything was very full.""And now?""Now it's settled. Not resolved completely. Nothing resolves completely. But settled." She paused. "It feels differen
Chasing His Divorced Wife Chapter 99
ELARA'S POVThe bowl came out of the kiln on a Tuesday three weeks before Christmas.Jun called me over when she opened it. Set it on the worktable without ceremony and stepped back.I looked at it.The shape was what I'd been working toward. Low and wide with an irregular rim that wasn't a mistake, was in fact the point, the place where the hand had been present in the making. The glaze had done something in the firing that I hadn't fully predicted, a depth in the blue-grey that shifted when the light changed.Like the Croatian ceramic. Like the painting Damien had found in the Vancouver archives.The right blue.Jun said nothing.I looked at her."Yes," she said. Just that.I brought it home wrapped in my jacket the same way I'd brought the Korčula watercolor home, the same way I'd carried things that mattered before I had the right container for them.Damien was home when I arrived.He was at the dining table with his laptop and looked up when I came in and saw immediately from the
Chasing His Divorced Wife Chapter 25
ELARA'S POVI didn't sleep after Damien left. Just sat on my couch replaying the conversation, wondering if I'd been too harsh.Maya came over at seven in the morning with coffee and bagels."You look terrible," she said."Thanks.""What happened? The show was perfect and then you disappeared."I t
最終更新日 : 2026-03-22Chasing His Divorced Wife Chapter 23
ELARA'S POVThe gallery showing was in two weeks and I was panicking. Not about the art—that was ready. About whether to invite Damien publicly or keep our relationship separate from my professional life.Maya found me stress-organizing frames at midnight."You're spiraling.""I'm fine.""You alpha
最終更新日 : 2026-03-21Chasing His Divorced Wife Chapter 20
DAMIEN'S POVThe legal team worked all weekend. By Monday morning, they had an injunction blocking the interview from airing. Victoria's lawyer called, furious."This is censorship. My client has a right to speak.""Your client is making defamatory claims," our lawyer responded. "If the interview a
最終更新日 : 2026-03-20Chasing His Divorced Wife Chapter 18
DAMIEN'S POVVictoria showed up at my office unannounced.Security called up first. "Mr. Hartley, your mother is here. Should we send her up?""No. Tell her I'm unavailable.""She says it's urgent. About the legal case."I closed my eyes. "Fine. Send her up. But stay close."Three minutes later, Vi
最終更新日 : 2026-03-19
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